Optical Fibers for Medical Application of 308 NM Excimer Lasers

Abstract

For medical applications of XeCl excimer lasers the performance of the fiber optical beam delivery system is of great importance. Especially for an efficient ablation of hard tissue in laser surgery high energy densities at the distal fiber end are necessary. The upper limit for the pulse energy, which can be guided through the fused silica fiber is limited by the surface damage threshold. However, even at lower pulse energies photodegradation effects which change the transmission properties have to be taken into account. Transmission losses increase with laser pulse energy, laser repetition rate and fiber length and decrease with laser pulse duration. During irradiation interruptions the fiber transmission recovers at least partly.